WiretoWire: Monumental Matt McCarty victorious in Utah

Matt McCarty wasn’t always a quick learner in professional golf, but that is changing quickly. McCarty, 26, earned his first PGA TOUR card with three wins in six Korn Ferry Tour starts this summer, securing a Three-Victory Promotion in late August. It took him three seasons to earn that card, and now he’s a TOUR winner in just three TOUR starts. McCarty won the inaugural Black Desert Championship in steady fashion, carrying a two-stroke lead into the final round at Utah’s Black Desert Resort and closing in 4-under 68 for a three-stroke win over Stephan Jaeger at 23-under 261. McCarty had already qualified for next year’s THE PLAYERS Championship and U.S. Open as the Korn Ferry Tour’s season-long champion, and his Black Desert victory qualifies him for the Masters and The Sentry, in addition to securing fully exempt TOUR status through 2026. He’s just the second player to earn a Three-Victory Promotion and win on TOUR in the same year, joining Jason Gore in 2005. It’s a lot to process for McCarty, a Phoenix-area native who played five seasons at Santa Clara University, where his teammates included Devrath Das – who has worked as McCarty’s caddie for the past three seasons. The duo shared a memorable walk up the 72nd hole amidst a postcard-worthy mountain landscape, punctuated by a tap-in birdie and a hug to rubber-stamp the moment. “To do it like this, I don’t know how you could expect this, to be honest,” McCarty said afterward. “It’s just been a crazy last few months for me. It’s been a lot of fun.”

Viva Las Vegas

The FedExCup Fall has hit its halfway mark as the TOUR heads to Las Vegas for the fourth of eight fall events – the Shriners Children’s Open. International Team Presidents Cup star Tom Kim arrives at TPC Summerlin with a tall order: the chance to three-peat his title after his breakout win in 2022 followed by his title defense in 2023. Only nine people have three-peated at an event since World War II, and seven of them are World Golf Hall of Famers. The 22-year-old became the youngest player since Tiger Woods to win three PGA TOUR titles with his victory at last year’s Shriners Children’s Open. Other players teeing it up in Las Vegas searching for valuable FedExCup points include TOUR winners Gary Woodland, Rickie Fowler and J.T. Poston.

Video of the week

Mic check

"I just take a lot of accomplishment, a lot of enjoyable times … There was a lot of negative I used to think about, but it's turning all positive now.” – Jay Don Blake, who grew up a stone’s throw from Black Desert Resort and made his 500th (and final) career PGA TOUR start at the Black Desert Championship

By the numbers

72 – The top 72 players on the season-long Charles Schwab Cup standings, finalized after the SAS Championship, have qualified for this week’s Dominion Energy Charity Classic, the first leg of the three-event Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs.

1 – Ben Kohles carded his first career ace and the first ace of the inaugural Black Desert Championship at the 130-yard, par-3 17th hole Thursday at Black Desert Resort.

66 – The first set of results from PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry’s First Stage were finalized Friday afternoon, with 66 players across three sites advancing to PGA TOUR Q-School’s Second Stage, which will be contested in late November and early December.